Matthew 5:23-24 - Are we okay?

Don't let the answer scare you from asking the question.

“So if you are standing before the altar in the Temple, offering a sacrifice to God and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you,  leave your sacrifice there beside the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.” (Matthew 5:23–24, New Living Translation, 1996) 

Recently, I had a "lively discussion" with somebody else, and I walked away thinking, "I wonder if I offended this person?" Later that evening, there was something I needed to pray about and I thought of this passage. I thought, "Maybe I should see if there is something I need to make right...before trying to pray to God."

So I called up the friend and said, "Is everything okay?"
They said, "What do you mean?"
I explained, "Well, it was a tense conversation; I just wanted to make sure we're alright. There are sometimes when maybe my wife and I will have a disagreement or maybe we just sense a tension and we'll ask, 'Are we okay?'"

That can be scary to ask because you don't know how the other person will respond. They may say,
"Yeah, actually I'm really upset."
And they may use colorful language to describe how upset they are!

Nobody likes to have that kind of confrontation. 
But it's good for working relationships, family relationships, community relationships: a lot of different times when it's simply good--the right thing--to make sure we haven't offended somebody. And if we have, especially if we already know we have, then to seek them out and make it right.

God, give us the grace to be sensitive not only to your Holy Spirit but also to other people and what they may be responding to or reacting to: things we've done or maybe things we've left undone. Help us to make things right in the power of Your Spirit and in the truth of Your word. In Jesus' name, Amen.